State bar councils cannot charge exorbitant fees for enrolling law graduates as lawyers: SC

New Delhi, Jul 30 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that state bar councils cannot charge more than Rs 650 and Rs 125 for enrolling law graduates from general and SC-ST categories, respectively, as lawyers.

The top court held that the Bar Council of India (BCI) and the state bar councils, which are authorised under the Advocates Act to enrol law graduates as lawyers, cannot override the legal provisions which have been enacted by Parliament.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra had reserved its judgement on a batch of pleas challenging “exorbitant” fees being levied by state bar councils for the enrolling lawyers.

Referring to Section 24 of the Advocates Act, 1961, the bench said the fee for a law graduate to be enrolled as a lawyer is Rs 650 and Parliament alone can increase it by amending the law.

On April 10, the top court had issued notices to the Centre, the BCI and other state bar bodies on the pleas, saying they had raised a significant issue.

The pleas alleged that charging “exorbitant” enrolment fees violated the legal provision and the BCI must step in to ensure it was not done.

“For instance, the petitioner alleges that the enrolment fee is Rs 42,100 in Odisha, Rs 25,000 in Gujarat, Rs 23,650 in Uttarakhand, Rs 21,460 in Jharkhand and Rs 20,050 in Kerala,” the court had noted while issuing the notices.

It was said that such high fees effectively deny enrolment to young aspiring lawyers who do not have the necessary resources.